Lime Sets Science-Based Carbon Target
On Monday, shared scooter and bike company Lime set an ambitious climate target for the company. While anybody can announce that they want to be carbon-neutral, Lime chose to go the harder route and use a scientifically-validated approach to its planning.
We're excited to announce that our industry-leading carbon target has now been validated by the @sciencetargets initiative, consistent with the Paris Climate Accords!
Here's @wayneting on how we will achieve these ambitious targets to ensure every Lime ride is sustainable: pic.twitter.com/12EFPJT41m
— Lime (@limebike) November 1, 2021
“I am so proud of the commitment that our Lime team is making around the world to build a future transportation that is shared, affordable, and carbon-free.” said Wayne Ting, CEO of Lime. In his Twitter video, he explained the company’s specific targets and committed to reporting to the public annually to keep itself accountable to progress toward its goals.
What Is A Science-Based Target?
While anybody can announce a lofty goal, there’s an initiative to get entities of all sizes to contribute toward the overall goal of achieving Paris climate goals. Called the Science-Based Targets Initiative (SBTi), it’s a partnership between several environmental non-profits and UN entities. The goal is to advise businesses and help them make realistic impacts toward real climate goals that matter.
Climate targets are considered science-based if they are in line with what’s needed to keep the world below 2 degrees of temperature rise from pre-industrial levels, and hopefully aim for closer to 1.5 degrees.
For a company to join the initiative, they must do the following:
- Commit to setting a target by sending the initiative a letter.
- Develop a plan using the SBTi’s guidelines.
- Submit the plan for analysis by the team.
- Communicate the target to the company’s customers and stakeholders.
- Disclose data annually to make sure everyone can see if you’re making it toward the goals.
The initiative charges large businesses $4950 to evaluate and validate climate plans, or $1000 for small and medium businesses. You can find the full set of criteria the SBTi uses here.
What Exactly Did Lime Commit To Do?
In a more detailed letter from CEO Wayne Ting, Lime described the things it is doing to reduce its Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions, or emissions from its facilities and vehicles:
“Continue to deepen our commitment to charge our global fleet on renewable energy by powering our warehouses on renewables and buying local renewable energy where we can. As the first operator to commit to charging our global fleet on 100% renewables, we’ve already begun this work locally in the UK, France, Germany, New Zealand, Sweden, United States and Korea.
“Continue to transition our entire operations fleet to electric vehicles and e-assist cargo bikes. We have a fully electric operations fleet in Paris, have new electric vehicles for our London operations, nine new electric vans en route to Germany, and more than two-dozen more vehicles arriving for cities around the globe in Q1 next year. Our deployment of swappable batteries has also enabled Lime to use e-assist cargo bikes more widely.”
For Scope 3 emissions, or the emissions deeper in supply chains and operations, Lime is aiming for improvements in how it builds the bikes and scooters, with an emphasis on repairability. The company is also working on using cleaner shipping methods to not only purchase new vehicles, but also for charging and moving scooters around.
Finally, Lime expects its partners up the supply chain to all set their own targets, so the companies can all have lowered emissions.
Featured image by Lime.
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